Two-year legal battle between parents, YMCA ends
CONNELLSVILLE – A two-year legal battle between a group of parents and the Regional Family YMCA of Laurel Highlands has ended, according to documents filed with the Fayette County Prothonotary Office. Parents alleged that children attending the YMCA Child Development Center were given a pickling salt by former workers of the now-closed facility.
Alan Perer, attorney for the plaintiffs, filed a motion Dec. 22 to settle and discontinue the matter. Perer requested that the office “settle and discontinue” the matter “with prejudice as to all defendants.”
Discontinuing something with prejudice means it cannot be refiled by either side in the suit.
Perer, attorney with the law firm of Swensen, Perer and Kontos of Pittsburgh, did not return messages left with his office seeking comment about the case.
The firm was hired in January 2009 by the families of the affected children and a former day-care worker who had alerted parents that their children, ranging in age from 3 to 6, were being given alum as a punishment.
Alum is a salt that is used in food processing and is an ingredient in commercially produced baking powder and can cause gastrointestinal bleeding, nausea, vomiting and burning when ingested, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The court documents do not reveal if the Regional Family YMCA of Laurel Highlands compensated the families in any manner. The agency oversaw the day-care center that was located in the Connellsville Community Center at 201 E. Fairview Ave.
Y executive director Steve Simon could not be reached Thursday for comment.
The center was closed in July 2009, according to Mike Rice, spokesman for the state Department of Public Welfare (DPW). The agency oversees the licensing and inspection of child-care centers.
“They had the option to appeal the revocation of the license, but never did,” said Rice. “The revocation was based on what is deemed as non-compliance with the public welfare code and regulations.”
Due to privacy issues, Rice said that he was unable to offer details as to what regulations were not being followed by the day-care center.
The center had operated for 20 years and had been cited by the regulatory agency for various reasons over the years for minor incidents, including the lack of labeling nursing bottles and medications, deficiencies in documentation pertaining to workers and failure to post daily activities among other incidents, according to inspection documents.
In 2002, police and the DPW launched separate investigations after it was learned that the staff overmedicated an infant. Police charged three people with endangering the welfare of a child.
Rice said the agency is not authorized to file charges against daycare workers or supervisors in the matters.
“If there is a child abuse incident at a day care, what we can do is look at whether the center had completed the requisite background checks or if the staff was properly trained,” he said. “If the abuse is deemed criminal, the case is under the purview of the police or some other prosecutorial agency.
“We investigate separate from what law enforcement would do if there is any hint of illegal or criminal activity so that we are not interfering and we always defer to law enforcement.”
Magisterial District Judge Ronald Haggerty said that no formal charges have been filed with his office against anyone tied to the day-care center incident.